CHAPTER VIII 



AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS IN PRIMITIVE 

 TIMES, AND ITS GRADUAL CHANGE 



BEFORE the advent of the European races to the tropics, 

 agriculture may almost fairly be called non-existent there, 

 except in the more civilised countries such as India, by reason 

 of the comparatively savage habits of most of their inhabitants. 

 It is not intended to imply that nothing was cultivated, for 

 that would be entirely incorrect, but that no systematic and 

 regular cultivations were engaged in. As in early days there 

 was practically no export trade, the products cultivated were 

 of course in general those that could be used in the countries 

 themselves, such as rice, yams, fibres, drugs, oils, etc. It 

 must also be remembered, that, as pointed out in Chapter VII, 

 as there was then little or no intercourse between the different 

 countries in the tropics, the supply of useful plants was far less 

 varied than it now is. Rice, for instance, was probably unknown 

 outside of Indo -Malaya. 



In general, then, the principle upon which early agriculture 

 was conducted was of the simplest grow all you need, and con- 

 sume all you grow. And in very many countries in the tropics 

 agriculture as yet has practically not got beyond this stage. In 

 the older and more civilised countries however, such as India 

 or Ceylon, matters have always been more complex than this, 

 owing to the presence of land owners and other capitalists. 

 Upon the land belonging to such people, the poorer villager has 

 in some countries had to work as a slave, in others has had to 

 rent the land for his own use, usually on a system of shares, the 

 owner taking say 50% of the crop as rent. In yet other cases, 



